


Sapling

by The Hag (hagsrus)



Category: The Professionals
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 03:22:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1713122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hagsrus/pseuds/The%20Hag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Operation Acorn and Very Welcome</p>
<p>May 2014<br/>Minor edit August 2015</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sapling

There was no joy in running today, just a determined slog through chilly morning drizzle. He seemed to be the only occupant of the park. Solitude - well, he'd never minded that. No children or dogs heedlessly cluttering the wet path, just the occasional scatter of old unswept leaves to avoid in case of slipping.

Bodie had been off on one of those incommunicado jobs among the mercs and weapons dealers the last few days, and Doyle had never been so aware that solitude was one thing, loneliness quite another.

_Fancied a bit of female company..._

Each time he passed the ancient oak he curled a finger down to tick off a lap around the pond. And each time memory flashed back to the late September day when beneath that tree his half-formed intention had solidified. Mischief, prurience, curiosity, long-denied desire, a sudden bubbling to the surface of affection, all had merged into an urging of _why not, you know he wants it, think you want it, life's too short and dangerous, not getting any younger, time to find out...._

Not quite so sudden, either. Stashing the beer to surprise Bodie had taken a bit of planning, an earlier detour, the hope that nobody would suss out the cans tucked into the undergrowth behind the tree. A couple of kids hiccupping and puking would have killed the mood and no mistake. But he hadn't been sure he would really try it on until he'd seen through slitted eyelids Bodie's reaction to the sight of him sprawled and just aroused enough at the whole idea for tumescence to be visible.

And then a bit later the sex, confirming his almost-fear that this was what he'd been wanting for years, the tangling embrace of hard muscle, the sweet slide and thrust and friction of cock against cock, the sweat and semen sticky between them, the scent and taste of sheer maleness consuming his senses.

But he'd realised afterwards that it wasn't new to Bodie. Those knowing hands, that skilled mouth -- all been done before. Nothing new to Bodie - no blinding revelation there.

 

Early this morning he'd called in to HQ to register his intention to go for his usual run. He'd asked, as he had asked the last six mornings, if Bodie had been in touch yet, surprised to be told that his partner had finished the op and had yesterday off. Surprised he hadn't called at least. A bit puzzled. A bit hurt. Had he been knocked out by the stress of days under cover? He'd known it happen, to both of them, fine while it all was happening, then overwhelmed by the desperate need for long, long hours of sleep.

He dialled Bodie's private number. Bodie would have snapped to alertness had it been the CI5 phone, but answered now with a sleepy grumble: "What - it's half past sodding dawn!" His voice with its familiar early morning complaint struck chords of pleasurable reminiscence. 

"Past sunrise, you dozy bugger. Fancy a run?" 

"No, I bloody don't." Nothing unusual there. 

"See you oop at t'mill later, then," Doyle responded cheerfully. "Where did you get to yesterday?"

"Oh, happened to fancy a bit of female company." He yawned. "Hoped I could sleep in this morning."

"Yeah." Doyle found himself groping for a response. "Well, get on with it, then."

"Ray -- "

He hung up.

There was tension in his gut. He couldn't eat or drink anything. When he got back perhaps. Well, he'd have to, or he'd be fit for nothing. Work might be all he had left. Just now all he wanted to do was run, to outpace the irrational sense of desolation, but after his jog through the streets and the laps around the pond he knew there would be no runner's euphoria today.

_Fancied a bit of female company..._

And why the hell not? Only, after days of absence -- 

Too clever by half, he told himself bitterly. Had to go and fall in love with him. 

It was years of work and friendship and shared peril and worry. Years of love just under the surface. Subsequent intermittent nights of sex had sent it erupting into another dimension. Sex so intense it left him certain that no one but Bodie would ever truly satisfy him again. Without love any other encounter would only be a weak shadow. 

He didn't know how Bodie felt about it all. Of course they kept it all on an ostensibly casual, almost joking level. He'd kept up their habitual chatter about women, wondering if his partner's recent anecdotes were as spurious as his own. Probably it was just one more affair and he was being eased out while Bodie moved on.

But Bodie was his friend, his truest friend. That mattered more, didn't it?

Bodie who had foiled the vengeance of Preston and Kathy Mason.

Bodie who had comforted him as well as he could after Ann had packed him in.

Bodie who had uncomplainingly given up that fishing holiday to support him over the Jill Haydon business.

Bodie who had saved his life when he lay bleeding, who had saved him time after time. Whom he had saved time after time, so that their lives were bound together and belonged to each other, a cherished tangle of Chinese obligation.

Nine circuits of the pond path. One to go. He rounded the curve and curled his left little finger to mark the beginning of the final lap.

Bodie who --

\-- was waiting under the oak tree, leaning against the trunk.

A surge of joy caught at his breath.

Bodie who had abandoned sleep to come to him, and nothing else mattered at this moment. He still had his friend, and that mattered more than all the rest.

He could live with it. Painfully, he could live with it.

He waved two derisory fingers and accelerated into the final lap.

 

"Bailiffs came to repossess your bed, did they?"

"Yeah. Hope yours is still available."

_Hope..._ Doyle felt the gut tension ease.

Bodie said: "Something round the back for you."

"Christ, not beer this early!"

"Never too early for me, mate, but I took your delicate digestion into consideration."

Doyle retrieved a thermos. "Coffee?"

"Got it filled at that fancy new American caff you've been throwing your money at. Couple of their breakfast sandwiches in my pocket, too."

"Couldn't find your mouth, then? Look," he indicated a tiny oak sapling with his foot. "Think that's one of our acorns?"

Bodie shrugged. "They'll probably have it grubbed up in no time. Let's get over to the shelter so we can eat without getting dripped on."

 

Doyle swallowed a mouthful of toasted cheese, still warm from its foil wrapping, and asked with careful nonchalance: "So this female company, anyone I know?"

Bodie washed down a generous bite of bacon-and-egg double-decker special with a gulp of coffee, then handed the shared cup back to Doyle. "Not unless you've been hanging about in Birkenhead."

''What, pissed off all the birds in London, have you?"

"Had 'em all, sunshine. Whole country out there needs seeing to."

"Me, I'm about ready to start on Wales and Scotland. I'll let them know you might stagger round eventually."

"Don't fancy Scotland. Might run into one of Cowley's relations."

_Birkenhead?_

"So how's your gran, then? Don't know what you're doing here. Usually get back too stuffed to move for days."

"The regular full dinner's next week. Thursday if the Cow doesn't bugger up the off-duty roster again. It was sort of on my way back so I dropped in for a cuppa. Then when I got back home I just lay down for a nap and next thing I know you're busting my eardrums with sweet nothings down the phone." 

"So how is she? All right?"

"She's... Said she might not be here much longer." He smiled slightly. "Nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Having you on, was she? Sounds like my grandma. 'Not long for this world, shut the door so I don't get pneumonia with that draught, soon be out of it, no one's going to miss me, and where's my cup of tea and I'll have some of that cake, not that I can enjoy it with my teeth, and --' "

"Heart of gold, eh?"

"Flogged it years ago, had it replaced with nice hygienic plastic. Like granddad's roses when he died. Paved all the garden over and stuck artificial flowers in the one little strip under the front window. So what's up with your gran, then?"

"Australia."

"Where the good grannies go?"

"Something like that. My uncle Frank moved there about ten years back and they've been wanting her to go too. Hot and cold running grandkids - that's the big draw - permanent babysitter. Granny flat on offer. Nice climate if you don't count the occasional dust storm. Change from the damp and dreary, anyway."

"Just now making up her mind to it, is she?"

"Says there's nothing much to stay for now that Uncle Henry's gone."

"Passed on?"

Bodie gave a brief, mirthless laugh. "Stumbled on. One drink too many and a lorry... Anyway, she reckons she's not getting any grandkids from me so she'll go where she can enjoy Frank and Susie's lot."

He was silent again. After a minute Doyle asked tentatively, "You'll miss her, won't you?"

"Last bit of family I've got this side of the world. She said... She's always said she hoped I'd bring along a special young lady one of these days. Only the last couple of years it's been 'somebody special'. Don't know if you fancy... Next Thursday..."

After a dumbfounded pause Doyle said cautiously, "Dinner with the family, sort of thing?"

"Well, she's a bloody good cook."

"You think she'll be all right with it, then?"

"Don't think she'd be attacking you with her rolling pin. She let on that Uncle Henry was one of the fraternity, so..."

"Huh." Doyle contemplated the prospect. "Mine goes ballistic if anyone even mentions sex." He grinned. "Very careful about our conversation, we are. My sister always primes me about her latest hates before I pay my duty call so I can keep deadpan."

"Better not meet her, then. Would your sister -- Janice, right? Would she -- ?"

"Oh, I don't think she'd have a problem. Be a bit cautious with my brothers, mind, but they're generally a safe distance. So what about young ladies?"

"Mmm." Bodie consumed the last of his sandwich. "Put 'em on hold for a while, eh? Got our hands full with each other. See how it all goes."

"Long while," Doyle dared to say. "Any coffee left?"


End file.
